What I learned about blogging in 2007

The year 2007 was pretty busy for me web site and blog wise. I expect 2008 to be even busier. If I have learned anything this year, it’s that in 2008 I need to learn to stay focused, work toward goals, and build on existing projects. The problem for me isn’t that I don’t have enough content to post. It’s that I don’t have nearly enough time to write it all up and monetize it to its fullest potential. I have way too many web sites and projects to do any of them to their fullest potential. But I’m too greedy to let most of them go for fear that the one(s) I drop will be the ones that would have worked. I have resolved over the last few months to rid myself of many that were never started and keep only the ones that I feel very strongly about. I am letting go all alternate domains like .net, .biz, and .info where I own the dot com, and getting rid of all domains not developed in at least one year. I think I own 50 domains and I may just weed that down to 25-30.

One of the things that came to mind recently is the amount of work I do on web sites vs. the expertise I share throughout my network of web sites. I think that 95% of web sites and blogs fail. I mean that they fail at meeting their goals. Whether it’s a goal of making money, becoming a “pro-blogger”, or getting 1,000 visitors a day – nearly all web sites “FAIL“. I can carelessly make this statement since it’s probably true. Alexa alone should show that the bulk of activity on the web worldwide comes from the top 5-10% of sites. Why is this? It’s just about the same as the law of wealth itself. Those willing to put in the time reap the rewards. Those that consistently work at it achieve results. Slow and steady wins the race, fast and sporadic loses at an uneven pace.

In 2008 I will sell and promote the hell out of 3 eBooks. These eBooks will show, in step by step minute detail, how to become successful creating, managing, and monetizing web sites. The first eBook will detail “how to become successful with a niche site“. The second eBook will show you “how to explode web site activity, growth, and backlinks by using social media“. The third and final eBook will teach you “how to become successful promoting and selling your own expertise“. I WILL BECOME VERY SUCCESSFUL SELLING THESE eBooks. I also predict that 95% of the people that will buy my eBooks will utterly fail and only 5% will realize any degree of success.

Why would I say this? It’s the law of the land: Survival of the Fittest! They most certainly won’t fail because they didn’t get quality materials from me. I will give the specific detailed steps and formulas including pictures and checklists to make them as successful as they “want to be”. The keywords are “want to be”. How many will take action? How many will get off their ass and do the work? Who will completely follow my directions and put in the required time to become successful? Success in any line of work or business is a full time job. If you expect to become successful online and only to “part time work“, the prospect of you becoming successful is only about as great as winning the lottery! It will only happen either by luck or completely by accident.

In 2008 I will concentrate on monetizing my expertise. I think that my biggest blogging mistake to date – was trying to become successful on adsense and affiliate revenue alone. I have gained lots of expertise and knowledge over the last 10-15 years that is worth ten times more than an monthly revenue stream I could generate. Stay tuned and subscribe to this blog if you haven’t already – and in the coming months I will teach you to do the same!

About The Author

John Pratt has been working online as a digital marketer and project manager for more than 20 years. His online passions include WordPress, SEO, digital strategy, content marketing, affiliate marketing, and hacking technology.
You can contact me here.
Read about how I spend my spare time here.

3 Comments

I like the fact that you are very honest about this whole thing. People tend to forget that starting a blog is like starting a business and 95% of all businesses eventually fail. If you’re doing it just for fun, spending hours creating content and promoting will quickly wear off. If you want 10-50 friends to read it and have an occasional laugh, then that’s what you’ll get.

There is so much noise out there which makes it extremely hard to get heard. I like all these sites selling you the idea of making easy money on the web 🙂 There are people out there who’ve been able to become very successful with online businesses, but very few people concentrate on the fact that these individuals spend months if not years working like hogs to get there. Once you have it setup, then yes, you can automate it, take it easy and focus on the next win and that’s where the 5% figure comes from.

As long as you are honest about that fact, then selling ebooks about it is a very good idea. All of that knowledge and sleepless nights have to eventually pay off.